The Church and The Narrow Path
by
Don Murphy
Table of Contents
A Strong Church will Teach what Jesus Taught
The Role of the Church in Salvation
Who can be Accepted into the Church?
The True Church has the Power of the Holy Spirit
The Church Compared with Marriage
The Case of Ananias and Sapphira
The Church and
The Narrow Path
There was a church in
This epistle is addressed
to those who sincerely seek to understand the nature of the true Church of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who work for a personal transformation in Christ and a
radical turn from the materialism, militarism and impurity of this world, to
those who are zealous for the Lord and whose heart cry is "Come, Lord
Jesus!" It is addressed to
those whose citizenship is in heaven, who are aliens and strangers on earth (I Peter
The Bible teaches us that
the Lord Jesus will build His Church and that it will have the keys to the
Kingdom of Heaven (Mt 16:18-19), that He began it on Pentecost when the disciples
were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts
2:4) and that it grew rapidly (Acts 2:41). The apostle Paul taught us that the Church is
the Body of Christ (I Cor 12:27, Col 1:24). But beyond
that, what do we know about the Church?
We do know that there are a wide variety of 'churches' today calling
themselves the 'true'
The goal of this epistle is
to shed more light on the nature of the true Church, the strong Church, to
expose the weak and worldly church and to uphold the truth. May the Spirit of the Lord guide us in these
steps, revealing to the hearts of those who belong to Him a fuller
understanding of the love of God given to His children in His Church.
We want to examine the
meaning of the truth revealed in the words of Jesus, "Struggle
to enter the Kingdom through the narrow door.
The road to hell is wide with plenty of room and most go that way. But the door is small and the path is hard
and narrow that leads to life and only a few find it." (Mt 7:13-14, Luke 13:23-24).
Jesus expressed this in a
similar way in the parable of the sower (Mt
13:1-23, Mk 4:3-9, Luke 8:5-8).
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of
God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Eph 2:8-9)
If we are saved by grace,
then why do we have to struggle to enter the
“And to whom
did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were
disobedient? So we see that
they were not able to enter because of unbelief.” (Heb 3:18-19)
We see here that faith
and obedience are tied together. The
Greek words used for disobedience and unbelief are “apeitheoô” which means to disbelieve,
disobedient, obey not, unbelieving and “apistia”
which means faithlessness, disbelief or unfaithfulness, disobedience,
unbelief. They are often intermixed in
the various Bible translations.
“Therefore,
since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news
preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience (Greek apeitheia).” (Heb
4:6)
“Therefore let
us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of
disobedience (Greek apeitheia).” (Heb 4:11)
This same Greek word
is used to describe the work of John the Baptist in Luke
Our challenge today is to
keep faith and obedience together. Many
preachers will talk about faith but not many will talk about obedience. Yet you can not have one without the other.
What is the role of grace? Paul teaches us, “Those
who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign
in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”
(Rom
Grace is God’s power
working in us, pushing us to obey God, rather than our carnal nature, so that
we will reign in life. We see this in
His promise in the Old Testament. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause
you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”
(Ez 36:27)
God’s grace will cause us
to walk in obedience to God, revealing our love for Him, as we accept the
abundance of grace that He wants to pour out on us because of His great love
for us. This is the meaning of Paul’s
teaching that we are saved by grace through faith.
A Strong Church will Teach what Jesus Taught
Here you can get an understanding
of the nature of the church that you attend.
Does your church teach, like Jesus does, that one be born again and then
must struggle to enter through the small door and follow the hard and narrow
path to be accepted by God? Is that aspect of the teachings of Christ
emphasized in your church?
We can see an example of this
struggle to enter the Kingdom through the narrow door in the story of the Jews
who left Egypt (left the world) and struggled in the wilderness for 40 years
before a few of them entered the Promised Land.
In the same way, the Bible teaches us that most people who start out on
the path to the Kingdom fall by the wayside for various reasons, one of which
is a lack of understanding of the Word of God.
But perhaps the major
problem facing anyone who receives the Word of God is in obeying Him. The weak teachers will tell us that it is
impossible to obey all that Jesus taught; some will even say that His teachings
and commands are for a later age. These
weak teachers seem to overlook that Jesus ends the Sermon on the Mount (which
contains the heart of His teachings) with the statement, "Not everyone
who calls Me 'Lord' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven but only those who do the
will of My heavenly Father." (Mt 7:21-27).
From the beginning of the
Bible to the end of the Bible, from
You may ask how man gained
access to the Tree of Life when his original disobedience closed the way. Romans
We must see that obedience
to the Lord Jesus certainly is required! It is mentioned so many times in the Bible (Mt 7:21, 12:50, 28:20, Mk 3:35, Luke 6:46, 8:21, John
12:47, 14:15, 14:24, 15:10, 15:14, Acts 5:32, II Cor 10:5, II Thess 1:8, Heb
5:9, I Peter 1:2, 4:17, I John 2:4,
3:22, 3:24, 5:2). Jesus is the source of eternal salvation for
all who obey Him.
Jesus
said, “If you love me, you will obey my commands.” (John 14:15)
He who does not obey the Son shall not see life, the
wrath of God rests upon him. (John
3:36)
This message of obedience
is so strongly given in the Bible yet most all churches override this message
with a false teaching on the gospel of grace.
The devil has blinded their spiritual eyes to the truth and has lead
them to believe that there is no need to obey any of the commands of Christ and
His apostles that would affect their lifestyle.
They call that legalism and a heresy.
The evidence of the devil’s influence in their lives in this area
becomes quickly evident by the abuse and mockery they exhibit when a person
questions them about obedience to the commands of Christ and His apostles that
would affect their lifestyle and make it different from that of their
non-believing neighbors.
Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven
and on earth. Go therefore and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the
end of the age.” (Mt 28:18-20)
Many churches will talk
about the Great Commission and will do the first parts of it, making disciples
and baptizing them. But how many
churches do the last part, teaching them to obey ALL that the Lord Jesus has
commanded? Very few indeed!
Most churches will say that
they do teach obedience to Christ but ask yourself about when was the last time
that your church reviewed ALL of the commands of Christ (there are quite a few
in the Sermon on the Mount alone), when was the last time you heard any
teaching on all of the commands of Christ?
It is a sad fact that most churches do not teach obedience to all of the
commands of Christ. Do they teach you
not to swear oaths? Jesus did! Do they teach you not to resist an evil
man? Jesus did!
Since Jesus said to teach
the disciples to observe all that He commanded, his commands should be the main
subject of sermons and teachings and Bible studies in every church that claims
to be Christian.
The
teachings of Jesus changed the lives of His disciples to such an extent that
they called their religion "The Way of the Lord" as it is the way of life
characteristic of the disciples of Christ. The term is used, by extension, for
the community itself. Jesus is himself called the "Way".
He is "The Way, The Truth and The Life", no one can be saved except
through Him. His way, the Way that He taught, is the only way into the
We
read about The Way in Acts 18:25 where it says that "he had been given instruction
in the Way of the Lord". Also Acts 9:2,
An
example would be the command of Christ, "Do not lay up for yourselves wealth on earth, where moth and rust
consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves wealth
in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break
in and steal." (Mt 6:19-20) Obedience to this command would certainly
affect a person's lifestyle.
One can more fully
understand the meaning of the Church when he is willing and anxious to obey all
of the commands of the Lord Jesus, who is the Head of the Church. One can only really experience the Church
when he is in God's will. Jesus taught
us how to live so that we are to obey Him if we expect to be with Him in His
Church.
"Struggle to
enter the Kingdom through the narrow door.
The road to hell is wide with plenty of room and most go that way. But the door is small and the path is hard
and narrow that leads to life and only a few find it." (Mt 7:13-14,
Luke 13:23-24).
Someone asked Jesus, "Of
all the commandments, which is the most important?"
"The most important
one” answered Jesus, "is
this: 'Hear, O
"Well said, Teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying
that God is one and there is no other but Him.
To love Him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with
all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than
all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
When
Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, He said to him, "You are not far
from the
When we can recognize and understand
that these are the greatest commandments, we are not far from the
Loving God above all things
means to love not the world, as it is written:
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of
the Father is not in those who love the world;
for all that is in the world‑‑the desire of the flesh, the
desire of the eyes, the pride in riches‑‑comes not from the Father
but from the world. And the world and
its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live
forever." (I John 2:15-17)
Loving our neighbor as
ourselves means treating our neighbor as well as, or better than, we treat
ourselves, as it is written: "We
know love by this, that He laid down His life for us‑‑and we ought
to lay down our lives for one another.
How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a
brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love,
not in word or speech, but in truth and action." (I John 3:16-18)
(Please note that the word
‘neighbor’ to the Jews at the time of Jesus did not mean someone living nearby
but it meant someone who is a fellow member of the covenant of God, as Jesus explained
in His teaching on the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:36. This understanding of the term ‘neighbor’
enables us to realize that we can love our neighbor as ourselves, it is not
impossible.)
Love in action means caring
for one another, for each others spiritual, emotional and physical needs. By this we can recognize another difference
between the strong Church and the weak church; for the weak church does not
teach its members to share life together as did the early Church (Acts
Nor does the weak church
teach its members to love not the world, and it does not teach its members to
come out from the world, as did the apostle Paul: "Do not be mismatched with
unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and
lawlessness? Or what fellowship is there between light and darkness? What agreement does Christ have with Belial?
Or what does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the
By this we can recognize
the strong Church, for its members are taught to love God above all things, and
to love their neighbors as themselves.
When we are on the path to
eternal life, we must follow it with great care as it is narrow. We must struggle along it daily as it is
hard. But it is a path that leads
somewhere. It is a path with mileposts
along the way, to show us our progress.
It is a path that has an end, eternal life. We can not walk that path to its end unless
we have a guide, the Spirit of Jesus.
And we must be in His Church.
When we begin walking on
this path, we are individuals with many selfish interests. Then the Holy Spirit starts to work on us,
slowly changing us into the image of Christ, establishing us into His
Body. If we endure and finish the
course, we will have died to ourselves, to our individual life, to our selfish
desires and will have become part of the Body of Christ, which is the
Church. We can then say, along with the
apostle Paul, "It is no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in
me" (Gal
The Role of the Church in Salvation
As we travel the path to
eternal life, we must drop off the things that hinder our travel, our
sins. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we
can become conquerors through Christ. We
soon find, however, that our sins have great clinging power. We do not become conquerors of our sins by
merely saying that we are. We find, if
we are honest with ourselves, that we often deceive ourselves into accepting
some of these sins. All too often we
hide from God's call to be holy, 'without spot or stain' (Eph 5:27, I Peter 1:15).
The apostle Paul writes,
"You can be very sure of this, that no immoral or impure person or one
who loves worldly things (for that one is following a false god) has any share
in the
Here is where we need to be
in a strong Church, for a strong Church will help us to shed these sins. When we are in a weak church, we can deceive
ourselves into accepting sin in our life and few people will attempt to help us
out of that sin; but when we are in a strong Church where we bear one another's
burdens as we live in close fellowship with each other, what is hidden from us
may be obvious to our brother or sister.
And they are commanded by the Lord to challenge sin in our lives (Mt
The apostle John also
teaches us, in strong words, that we can not continue to sin and expect to
enter the
So many people today
mistakenly think that they are 'saved' because of their 'faith in Jesus' and/or
because of their membership in their church.
This leads them to pay little attention to their lifestyle. Yes, they may stop smoking or drinking but to
follow closely the teachings of Jesus?
That, to many, would be legalism.
Yet all the writers of the New Testament are strong on this point of
obedience to Jesus.
Genuine faith in Jesus
produces great changes in a person's lifestyle.
The apostle Paul writes, "When you leave your former way of
life, you must lay aside that old human nature which, deluded by its lusts, is
sinking towards death. You must be made
new in mind and spirit, and put on the new nature created by God, which shows
itself in the just and devout lifestyle called for by the truth." (Eph 4:22-24).
Let us ask God for wisdom
and insight into His will, so that we may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,
to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in good works (Col 1:10).
Who can be
Accepted into the Church?
Not all can be accepted
into a strong Church but only those who are willing to repent, those who are
willing to stop following the 'god of this world' (II Cor 4:4) and are
willing to follow all the teachings and commands of the Lord Jesus. The apostle John writes "whoever
claims to be dwelling in Christ binds himself to live as Christ Himself lived"
(I John 2:6).
The weak churches desire a
large number of members but a strong Church desires only members who are
seeking the
Many of us shy away from a
strong Church because of the sin in our lives.
We want to serve God but we do not want to give up our sin. Jesus said that those who commit sin hate the
light (Jesus is the light, the Church is His body) and do not come to it
because their deeds would be exposed (John
Yes, the major reason that
most of us 'Christians' are not in a strong Church is that we do not want to
give up the things of the world (I John
2:15-17), we do not want to give up our
sin, thinking that it is not sin. So we
deceive ourselves into believing that we are 'born again', 'saved' and obeying
God. But how can we be completely born
again if we have not completely died to our old self first? (Rom 6:2-8) Isn't the new life conditional upon the death
of the old life? (Rom 8:13-14) Doesn't the
Bible tell us that those who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with
its selfish desires? (Gal 5:24) How can we be
'saved' if we are on the wide road to hell?
Come, let us seek the true
The True
Church has the Power of the Holy Spirit
Jesus came into this world,
was born into the world, as a simple man.
He laid his divinity aside and was like any man, except without sin and
so He is the example for us, the role model for members of His Church. Jesus had no sin that separated Him from God
the Father and He depended completely on the power of the Holy Spirit working
in Him. We are to be like Him, free from
sin that separates us from our heavenly Father and depending completely on the
power of the Holy Spirit in our daily life instead of on our own power. We are to be dead to self and alive in
Christ!
The Holy Spirit spoke
through the prophet Ezekiel concerning three sins commonly found in the weak
church. “This was the sin of your sister
When we are dead to self we
are open to the power of the Holy Spirit working in us, both for our own good
and that of the Church. We must be
immersed in the Holy Spirit, baptized in the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8) and
exercising the Gifts that the Holy Spirit gives us (I Cor 12-14) to
do the good deeds that God created us to do
(Eph 2:10).
Many people seem to think
that only the apostles had the power of the Holy Spirit to heal the sick but we
see in Luke 10:9 that others also had this Gift because it is not their power
but God’s power at work. The apostle
Peter prayed to God saying, “Stretch out
your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of
your holy servant Jesus.” And after they prayed, the place where they were
meeting was shaken! (Acts 4:30-31)
Jesus said, “These are the signs that will follow
believers: they will cast out demons,
speak in tongues, be kept safe from snakes and poison and will lay hands on the
sick to heal them.” (Mk 16:17-18) These signs
are signs of faith, signs that they are open to the power of the Holy Spirit in
their lives.
The true Church is strong
in the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke
24:49), bringing deliverance and healing
to people today just as Jesus and His apostles did. Jesus is our role model and
Head of the Church. We are to be like
Him, not only in being close to the Father, having no sin that separates us
from the Father, but also expecting the power of the Holy Spirit to work though
us just as it did through Him.
Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, he who believes in Me, the
works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do;
because I go to the Father.” (John 14:12)
Amazing! The works that Jesus did we can do also if we
truly believe! Did He really mean
that? Of course He did!
The strong Church
helps its members to build strong faith in God and to cast off all doubts. James teaches us, "If any of you lacks wisdom,
let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it
will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the
one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For
that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being
a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." (James 1:5-8)
How many of us have
even a tiny bit of faith? Jesus said
that if a person had even a tiny bit of faith, they could tell that mountain or
that tree to jump into the ocean and it would do it. So we can all see that we have a ways to go
in developing strong faith.
Faith is a growth
process, it is both a Gift of the Holy Spirit (I Cor 12:9) and a Fruit of the
Holy Spirit working in our lives (Gal
5:22).
A strong church will develop
strong members.
But we need to remember that strong faith must be accompanied by strong
obedience to ALL of the commands of Christ and His apostles. We need to remember the warning that Christ
gave to His disciples who did have strong faith. "Not
everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he
who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord,
did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your
name perform many miracles?’ And then I
will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart
from Me, you who WOULD NOT obey God's laws!’" (Mt 7:21-23)
The apostle Paul, in I Cor
13, gave a similar warning to those with strong faith but lacking in strong
love. All of the commands of Christ are
for the purpose of teaching us how to love God above all things and how to love
our neighbor as ourselves. As both Jesus
and Paul points out, we can have strong faith and still be lost eternally if we
do not give absolute obedience to ALL of the teachings and commands of
Christ. Many of the weak preachers
proclaim obedience to Christ but upon close examination, you find that they
mean obedience to one or two commands and not to all of them.
The Secret of True Obedience
“In the days of his earthly life, Jesus offered up prayers
and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the One who was able to save
him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although
he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been
made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” (Heb 5:7-9)
The secret of true
obedience is a clear and close personal relationship with God. All of our attempts to achieve full obedience
will fail until we get access to His abiding fellowship. It is
God’s holy presence, consciously abiding with us, that keeps us from disobeying
Him. Defective obedience is always
the result of a defective life. To rouse
and spur on that defective life by arguments and motives may help, but only to
make us feel the need of a different life, a life so entirely under the power
of God that obedience will be its natural outcome. The defective life, the life of broken and
spasmodic fellowship with God, must be healed, and make way for a full and
healthy life; then full obedience will become possible. The secret of true obedience is the return to
close and continual fellowship with God.
We read that Christ
“learned obedience.” Why was this necessary? The Word proceeds to explain that He “learned
… obedience by the things which he suffered, and … became the source of eternal
salvation to all them that obey him”.
Suffering is unnatural to us, and therefore calls for the surrender of
our will. Christ needed suffering to
learn to obey through it and give up His will to the Father at any cost. He needed to learn obedience so that as our
great High Priest He might be made perfect.
He learned obedience. He became obedient unto death that He might
become the source of our salvation. He
became source of salvation through obedience that He might save those “who obey Him.”
As obedience was with Him
absolutely necessary to procure salvation, so with us it is absolutely
necessary to inherit it. The very
essence of salvation is obedience to God.
Christ as the obedient One
saves us as His obedient ones. Whether
in His sufferings on earth or in His glory in heaven, whether in himself or in
us, obedience is what the heart of Christ is set upon.
With us, as with Christ,
the life of continual obedience requires a close personal relationship with
God. (Suggested reading: Andrew Murray’s book “The Believer’s Secret
of Obedience”)
The Church of the Lord
Jesus Christ has the power to forgive sin, for it is the Body of Christ and He
is the Head of His Body. Jesus said to
His Church, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age... If you forgive the sins of someone, they are
forgiven; if you pronounce them unforgiven, unforgiven they remain." (Mt 28:20, John 20:23, Mt
This means that when one
commits a sin, repents, accepts the discipline of the Church, then the Church,
guided by the Holy Spirit, has the power to declare forgiveness of that
sin. If the Spirit of Truth is not
guiding the church, then it certainly is not the church that has Jesus as its
head.
This declaring the forgiveness
of sins by the Church is necessary because the Church can determine, under the
leadership of Jesus, that the person has truly repented; whereas by himself, he
may deceive himself into thinking that he has been forgiven by God when he has
not really repented. And often there is
great healing power released when a sinner has repented and has been forgiven
by the Church. "Confess your
sins to one another, and pray for one another, and then you will be healed."
(James 5:16). Oh, what a joy it is when you
know that you are forgiven! (Rom 4:7-8)
Unless the Church has the
power to declare the forgiveness of sin, it is not a strong Church but merely a
social (or business) group, a weak church.
The church can not, in the name of Jesus, forgive sins if it is such a
loose group that it does not have intimate knowledge of each other's lives, if
its people do not submit to the church, if they are not willing to accept the
church discipline, if the elders are not willing to confront sinners in their
congregation. In short, if there is not
a strong bond of love between members, it is not a Church. The apostle John writes that we know that we
have entered into life when we realize that we truly love the brethren (I John
The weak preachers in the
weak church do not confront people with their sins. Just the opposite happens. The people are actually affirmed in their
sins by compromising shepherds.
Ezekiel says of such
preachers, “With lies ye have made the
heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the
hands of the wicked, that he should not turn from his wicked ways, by promising
him more life.” (Ezekiel 13:22) The prophet is
saying, “You’ve saddened the righteous with your frivolous preaching. And you’ve empowered the sensual to sin even
more, without guilt. You’ve given them
lies about eternal life. No! You’re
robbing these people of eternal life.
You’ve turned God’s grace into lasciviousness.”
Jesus came to destroy the
works of the devil and He does it through His Church, His strong Church, with
strong preachers who confront sin in people’s lives, overturning the work that
the devil has done.
Jesus taught a three step
procedure for dealing with sin. “If your
brother commits a sin, go and take the matter up with him, strictly between
yourselves, and if he listens to you, you have won your brother over. If he will not listen, take one or two others
with you, so that all facts may be duly established on the evidence of two or
three witnesses. If he refuses to listen
to them, report the matter to the church; and he will not listen even to the
church, you must then treat him as you would a pagan or a tax-gatherer. I tell you this: whatever you forbid on earth shall be
forbidden in heaven, and whatever you allow on earth shall be allowed in
heaven.” (Mt 18:15-18)
The apostle Paul taught
that the Church is to be the judge over matters concerning members of the
church. In I Cor 5, he gave instructions
on dealing with a man who was living an immoral life. He warned them about not allowing sin in one
person to corrupt the whole church. We
are to have nothing to do with people who claim to be Christians but continue
to live a sinful life.
The Church
Compared with Marriage
The Bible compares the
Church with a marriage. Read the Apostle
Paul's teaching in Ephesians 5:21-32 on the subject. The strong Church consists of people deeply
committed to one another and to Christ, like God intends man and woman to be
committed to one another in marriage. For
a marriage to be successful, each must commit himself totally to the other. Each must die to himself so that the unity
can grow. Each must share of himself for
the good of the marriage. So it is with
the Church. There is little commitment
when people treat church membership as some people treat marriage, skipping
from one to another. But when there is
'koinonia' - deep committed fellowship and sharing, there is true Church life.
Each member of the Church
is an organ of the Body of Christ (I Cor
As the grapes must lose
their individual selves in order to become wine and the wheat must be ground up
and lose its individual identity to become bread, so must a person die to
himself, lose his individual identity (remember the words of the apostle Paul,
“It is no longer I who lives”) and become a part of the Body of
Christ. Then the joy and peace of the
Lord becomes a permanent reality in a person's life.
Yes, the path to eternal
life is narrow and hard. It is a
struggle, but with our brothers and sisters in the Church helping one another
to carry our burdens, it is a joyful path.
If one has not experienced the joy of fellowship in the Church, it is
difficult to describe, just as the joy of a beautiful marriage is difficult to
describe to one who has not experienced it. But it is real! Praise God, it is real!
The apostle Peter tells us,
"You greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory."
(I Peter 1:8). The Church is
not only created to enable God's chosen to shed the sin that hinders entering
the Kingdom, but it is also created to allow the love of Jesus to be shared
among His children.
We must not lose sight of
the words of the apostle Paul who wrote, "The
Love is joy in others. Passing on this joy that the presence of
others brings us means speaking words of love.
Thus words of anger and worry about members of the Church are out of the
question. The apostle Peter teaches us,
"Since, by obedience to the truth, you have purified your souls until
you feel a sincere affection towards your brothers, love one another
whole-heartedly with all your strength." (I Peter 1:22). The apostle Paul knew this love and joy. Read his epistles carefully, looking for his
expressions of this joy and you will be amazed!
This joy can be present
only when there is unity in the Church.
Unity is so important that it is one of the first subjects taught by the
Lord Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt
One of the major differences between the various
branches of Christianity is the method of living a holy life. Most all churches
teach some manner of holy living but the means to achieve that are quite
varied.
Many churches teach that all a person has to do
to achieve a holy life is to obey their church commandments and receive their
church sacraments. These generally are
the ‘high’ churches that use a liturgy and ceremonies in their church
ceremonies.
Other churches teach a different method of
achieving a holy life, they teach imputed righteousness, which when boiled
down, is not all that much different than what the ‘high’ churches teach,
especially if they teach that certain sacraments or ordinances are also
required, such as water baptism and/or the Lord’s Supper.
In a few churches, where there are no
sacraments, it is generally taught that a holy life is achieved by actually
living a holy life in the manner explained by the Lord Jesus and His apostles.
These are the churches that take into
consideration the words of Christ, "You
must be perfect as God is perfect" (Mt
The apostle Paul taught us, "Lay aside the old self, which is being
corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and be renewed in the spirit
of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been
created in righteousness and holiness of the truth." (Eph 4:22-24)
"May the Lord cause
you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as
we also do for you; so that He may establish your hearts without blame in
holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His
saints." (I Thess 3:13)
One of the keys to actually living the holy life
is a proper understanding of our situation here on earth. The Lord Jesus and His apostles try to teach
that in many different ways. One of
these ways, one of these keys to truly understanding our situation that we are
currently in, is to recognize the age that we live in.
The Bible teaches that there are two ages,
this current age, which is for a definite period, and the age to come, which is
for eternity.
In the age to come, the Lord God will
reign supreme forever. However, during
this present age God has allowed the devil to rule the worldly system in which
we live. This means that in this present
age, there are two kingdoms, the
Paul tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ gave
Himself for our sins that He might deliver us out of this present evil age (Gal 1:4).
It is important that we understand the age that
we live in so that we know the truth of our situation, for the truth will set
us free, Jesus said.
When
our mother gave birth to us, we were born into this world, into a world that
the devil rules (I John
That is why the apostle Paul told us, "Beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all
defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." (II Cor 7:1) We must relinquish, give
up, our service to our old way of life, to our carnal nature which submits to
the authority of the devil. We must
instead submit ourselves to the authority of our heavenly Father and come under
His complete rule.
When we understand the situation that we
are in, that we are living in the dominion of Satan but are citizens of the
Jesus told the Roman governor, "My Kingdom is not of this world. If My Kingdom were of this world, my men
would be fighting to save Me." (John 18:36)
Jesus knew which kingdom He was in, which was
His and which was Satan’s. While living
in this world, Jesus set us an example of how to live here. We see the physical power that Satan has in
his temptation of Jesus, how he could put Jesus on a mountain or on the top of
the temple (Mt 4:5, 8). We see how Jesus responded; He did so with the
Word of God and with humility and meekness.
Of course that will be different in the age to come, then He will come
with power and might, the absolute Ruler!
But in this age, we must recognize the reality of our situation, just as
Jesus did when He was in this world.
When we understand the age that we live in, we
can more readily recognize the things of the world that are under Satan’s
authority, as John explains in I John 2:15-19.
For example we can more readily recognize that worldly vanities, such as
concern for our appearance, our homes, our cars, is not from God but from our
carnal nature which is still under the influence of Satan. Also our support for wars, for the military,
is not from God. Jesus said that His
followers do not fight (John
The Spirit draws us on this
path to eternal life, to holy living. In
most ways, it is the same path for all who would be a disciple of the Lord
Jesus and have eternal life. It is the
Way of the Lord (Acts 9:2, 18:25-26, 19:9,
23, 22:4, 24:14, 22), a way of life
characteristic of the Christian community where one gives up his worldly,
selfish life and begins to live according to the teachings and commands of the
Lord Jesus.
The teachings and commands
of Jesus are for the purpose of showing His disciples how to live a life worthy
of the Father (I John 3:2-3). Jesus said
that we must be perfect as God is perfect (Mt
Jesus showed us that the
Way to the
One of the key subjects
that Jesus and His apostles preached on was concerning money and
possessions. It is the focus of much of
His teachings, His warning of the dangers of money and possessions. Sadly, it is also the focus of much of the
preaching by today's preachers, but in the opposite direction, for it seems
that they are always asking for money.
Yet the apostle Paul warned us that the love of money is the root of all
evil (I Tim
The early Church should be
an example for us. Their use of money
and possessions made the Church of Jerusalem distinctive and set them apart
from the rest of the people (Acts 4:33).
Jesus was very clear about
possessions. He commanded His disciples
to sell their possessions (Luke
The Bible tells us that
all, repeat ALL, who shared the faith in the early Church held all material
good in common; they sold their property and possessions and distributed the
proceeds among themselves according to what each one needed (Acts 2:44-45).
Here we can see the clear
example of the early Church as they put the teachings of Jesus into practice in
every day living. Jesus taught that one
could not travel the narrow path to the
The burden of possessions
is too heavy a load for a disciple to carry.
It keeps him from loving his brother as himself, for when one says,
'This is mine', he is revealing his selfishness, just like a little child who
grabs a toy and will not share it with his playmates.
We will all one day leave
this world and enter the next. Our
earthly possessions will be left behind, we can not take them with us. Who will have them then? (Luke 12:20) In the next life we will not have any
possessions, only here in this life are we faced with a choice of clinging to
material possessions or clinging to God.
Jesus told a young man,
"If you wish to go the whole way,
go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor, and then you will have riches
in heaven. And then come, follow me." When the young man heard this, he did not
receive it with joy but went away with a heavy heart, for he had great
wealth. So Jesus told his disciples,
"I tell you that a man rich in
worldly possessions will find it hard to enter the
Now many people, when asked
about this passage in the Bible, will say that the young man had a problem with
riches and that this teaching applies only to those who have a similar
problem. But don't we all have that problem
to some degree or other? We can piously
proclaim that we are not slaves of our possessions, that we are merely stewards
of them and will give them up when told to do so by God. But is that really true? How do we know that we can actually part with
all our possessions, like the early Church members did, unless we actually try
to do it? Possessions give us a freedom,
so we think, a freedom to do things that we couldn't do if we lacked certain
possessions. Our car allows us to go where we please, our own home is our
castle where we have control of our life.
Parting with these things means that we lose control and that can be
scary to many folks.
Jesus said, "Sell your possessions and give to the
poor. Get yourselves purses that do not
wear out, treasures that will not fail you, in heaven where no thief can reach
it and no moth can destroy it. For where
you treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12:33, Mt 6:19-21) “You can not serve both God and worldly possessions." (Mt 6:24) You can not have both heavenly treasures and
earthly treasures, you must choose one or the other is what the Lord Jesus is
telling us.
"Struggle to enter the Kingdom
through the narrow door. The road to
hell is wide with plenty of room and most go that way. But the door is small and the path is hard
and narrow that leads to life and only a few find it." (Mt 7:13-14,
Luke 13:23-24).
One of the several reasons
that Jesus gave for the avoidance of possessions was the harmful effect that
they have on a disciple's spiritual health.
This theme is repeated through out the New Testament. The apostle Paul writes, "The love of money is the root of all sorts
of evil, and some, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith, and
have pierced themselves with many sharp griefs." (I Tim 6:10) Jesus said, in the parable of the sower,
"The seed sown in the thorns is
someone who hears the Word, but the worries of the world and the lure of
riches choke the Word and so it produces nothing." (Mt 13:22) The lure of riches is a deadly temptation to
today's Christian, for who among us do not desire more worldly wealth?
The teaching of Jesus in
Luke 12 should be prayerfully and carefully studied by anyone who would claim
Jesus as Lord. In this teaching, Jesus is
not talking about outrageous greed, but the ordinary desire for things. "Be
on your guard against desiring material possessions", He proclaims (Luke
So that is one of the
reasons that Jesus said, "Blessed
are the poor, for theirs is the Kingdom of God." (Luke 6:20) The other side of this issue, the reverse
position, is expressed by Jesus as, "Woe
to you who are rich, you have had your time of happiness." (Luke 6:24) And in the story of Lazarus and the rich man,
it is explained so forcefully that few can fail to understand the point that
Jesus is trying to make when this rich man is told, "During your life good things came your way, just as bad things came the
way of Lazarus. Now he is being
comforted here while you are in agony." (Luke 16:19-31)
James wrote, "A word to you who are rich. Weep and wail over the miserable fate
descending on you... You have fattened
yourselves for a day of slaughter." (James 5:1-5)
Therefore Paul wrote,
"We brought nothing into this world
and we can take nothing with us when we leave.
We should be content to have food and covering. The love of money is the root of all sorts of
evil, and some, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith, and have
pierced themselves with many sharp griefs.
But you, man of God, must shun all this, and pursue righteousness,
piety, fidelity, love, fortitude, and gentleness." (I Tim 6:7-11)
The beloved apostle John
wrote, "Love not the world, nor the
things of the world." (I John
2:15)
Jesus said that the greatest commandment is, "Thou shall love the Lord God with your whole mind, with your whole soul
and with all your strength." (Mt
22:37)
That leaves no room for attachment to earthly possessions.
The second greatest
commandment, according to Jesus, is, "Thou
shall love thy neighbor as thyself." (Mt 22:39) If your neighbor, who should be your brother
or sister in the Lord if you are living in the midst of disciples, if your
neighbor is lacking something that you have, then you are not loving your
neighbor as yourself. If you have two
coats and your neighbor has none, you are subject to judgement for being
selfish (Luke
It is literally impossible to love your neighbor as
yourself when you live in private possessions!
The apostle John wrote,
"If anyone has material possessions
and sees someone in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in
him? Children, our love must not be just
words or mere talk, but must be active and genuine, which is the proof that we
belong to the truth." (I John
3:17-18)
Real love is shown by our actions, not by our words. Therefore Jesus said, "Everyone will know that you are My disciples
by the love that you show to each other." (John 13:35)
This was shown by Zacchaeus
when he met the Lord for he then said, "I am going to give half of my property to the poor." (Luke 19:1-10) He was moved by the Spirit to say this. And if he later joined the Church in
When we examine the early
Church, we can see how this love was shown.
The Bible tells us, "They
were all held in high esteem, for they had no needy persons among them, because
all who had property in land or houses would sell it, bring the proceeds of the
sale to the apostles who would see that it is distributed to anyone in need."
(Acts 4:34-35) They shared
their possessions in common which was a powerful witness to those around
them. How much more would this speak to
the world today if those who would be disciples of Christ would do the same?
The Case of Ananias and Sapphira
Along with the example of
the Church in
There was a man named
Ananias in the community. He and his
wife, Sapphira, agreed to sell a property but, with his wife's connivance, he
kept back part of the price and brought the rest and presented it to the
apostles.
What happened next is
certainly one of the most amazing accounts in the Book of Acts.
Peter said to him, "Ananias, how can Satan have so possessed you
that you should lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the
land? While you still owned the land,
wasn't it yours to keep, and after you sold it, wasn't the money yours to do
with as you like? Who put this scheme
into your mind? You have not been lying
to men but to God." When
Ananias heard this, he dropped dead!
This is a very interesting,
powerful story about the dangers of possessions and about lying to God. But how did Ananias lie to God? Certainly God knew what Ananias did, how much
he received for the land. How can a
person lie to God when God knows everything that we do? The only way that we can lie to God is when
we promise Him something and don't intend to do it. The only way that Ananias
could have lied to God was in his baptismal vows (I Peter
Ananias had no intention of
giving up everything to the Church, so Peter was admonishing him when he told
him, "While you still owned the
land, wasn't it yours to keep, and after you sold it, wasn't the money yours to
do with as you like?" Peter was
saying that this is what was in the mind of Ananias, that he thought that he
could keep part of his possessions, just in case this Way of the Lord (Acts 18:25)
should prove to be false, in case he had to provide for himself.
What a lesson this should
be for us! We should be able to see how
important this business of giving up possessions and sharing life together is
to God and His Church.
One can not say that “Well,
for you, that may be required but, as for me, I am under grace”, for that is
merely trying to excuse your life of sin and selfishness. All are required to die to self in order to
enter the Kingdom. All are given the
Spirit if they are on the path to the Kingdom.
The Spirit that we are given is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of
love.
For one to say, “Well, you
may give up all your possessions, if that is what you feel called to do, but as
for me, I will do it when God tells me to and so far He hasn't told me”, when
one talks like this, he is exposing his desire for the life of the world and is
expressing where his citizenship really lies.
Another will say,
"Well, it is all in your attitude.
If you are free of slavery to material possessions, you may keep them,
remembering that you are merely a steward of them, they really belong to God”. This certainly is self-deception, a twisting
of the gospel for one's own self-interest.
"Woe to you who are rich!” the Lord said. Jesus clearly showed us the necessity of
serving only God and not the world. He
said that you CAN NOT serve both God and worldly wealth (Mt
To be in the strong Church,
means to love one another above ourselves.
It means to share our possessions with one another so that there is no
one in the Church who is in need (Acts
A key test to determine the
worldliness of a church is their attitude towards money. If the church asks for tithes, or is
secretive about its financial affairs, or provides little or no financial support
for needy members, then it surely is a weak church. The strong Church does not ask for tithes
(that is an Old Testament rule, nowhere do you find in the New Testament that
the Christians could keep 90 percent of their income - read Mt 19:21, 27; Luke
12:33, 14:33, Acts 2:44-45, 3:6, 4:32-5:11 and look what happened to Ananias
when he tried to keep part of his). The
strong Church does not conduct its financial affairs in darkness but brings it
to the light (John
This path to eternal life
naturally leads us into pacifism (Mt
5:38-48, Eph 6:12, John 18:36),
community-church life (Acts 2:42-47,
4:29-5:16), concern for our dress (I Cor 11:10, I Peter 3:1-6, I Tim 2:9), rejecting oaths (Mt
5:33-37, James 5:12), and other practices
taught by the Lord Jesus and His apostles, most of which are ignored by the
weak churches. It is the common path
traveled by all those who have sought eternal life ever since the first
Pentecost, for it is the same Spirit who guides all travelers on that narrow
path.
Some would say, "Well,
it depends on how you interpret the Bible”.
Many others would cry, “Legalist!”
There is always an excuse available for the people in the weak churches
to convince themselves that their selfish life is alright with God, for He does
allow them to be deceived if they are not willing to submit totally to His will
(Mt 13:10-15, Rom 1:24-32).
If we are truly committed
to the Lord Jesus, then we will make every effort to please Him (Eph
The strong Church is a
small Church, for few will find the way into it (Mt
The
The Book of
Acts chapter 2 records the birth of the
Using Acts
2 as a guide, we see that there are four types of churches today.
When we use Acts chapter 2
as a guide we find that the way to the
"Struggle to
enter the Kingdom through the narrow door. The road to hell is wide with plenty of room
and most go that way. But the door is
small and the path is hard and narrow that leads to life and only a few
find it." (Mt 7:13-14, Luke 13:23-24).
In the Parable of the Sower
(Mt 13),
Jesus describes not only what happens to people who are born again when they
hear the word of God (I Peter 1:23) but also He is describing four types of churches,
three that are weak churches and one that is a strong Church.
The first weak church is
the largest one: "When anyone
hears the word of the Kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes
and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path."
(Mt 13:19) The path that Jesus speaks of
here is the wide road to hell, as He taught when He said "The gate is
wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who
take it." (Mt 7:13) When a
person hears the good news of the Kingdom, as taught by the weak preachers, he
does not understand it, for it has not been properly taught. These weak preachers claim to be Christians
but they have a weak or perverted religion, and do not have the Gospel
themselves. They rely on their liturgy,
rituals and sacraments instead of on the Lord Jesus Christ. The members of their church have no
protection from the tricks of the devil, so if one of them should hear the
Gospel, the devil is there immediately to snatch it away. The same is true of new Christians who join a
weak church such as this, they easily fall prey to the devil and so lose their
salvation.
The second weak church is
the liberal church: "As for what
was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately
receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a
while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that
person immediately falls away." (Mt
13:20-21)
A church on the rocky ground is a liberal church, one that calls Jesus
Lord but mostly ignores what He taught.
They have no power to endure the trails and tribulations that the devil
brings forth to try the faith of all who believe (John 16:33, Acts 14:22). When a person hears the Gospel and joins such
a church or is already a member, they have no ability to stand firm in their
beliefs as they are not firmly rooted in the truth.
The third weak church is
the so called 'Bible believing church':
"As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears
the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and
it yields nothing." (Mt 13:22) This person is
in, or joins a church that teaches nearly all the truth (a 'Bible believing
church') but falls short in some critical areas, such as possessions (Luke 12:33, I John 2:15). Since they do not hear the
full Gospel (Acts 2:4 and Acts 2:44), they fall prey to the temptations of the world,
their concern for their own life chokes the Spirit such that they do not bear
the fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23, Mt
21:43).
The fourth church described
by Jesus is the strong Church: "But
as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and
understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold,
in another sixty, and in another thirty." (Mt 12:23) The good soil is the Church, the Body of
Christ, where one can bear fruit for the Kingdom of God (John 15:1-8). Like a plant growing in well watered, rich
soil, it is in the strong Church that one has the help of his brothers and
sisters to live a holy life and to refrain from sin (Gal 6:1-2), it
is there that the temptations of the world are lessened and the sense of the
coming Kingdom of God is greater. It is
in the strong Church that one has the power of God to fully resist sin.
Jesus said, "Enter
through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads
to destruction, and there are many who take it.
For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and
there are few who find it. Beware of
false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous
wolves. You will know them by their
fruits." (Mt 7:13-16).
There is a high fence
around the good soil, around the strong Church, a fence that has only a very
small gate in it (Mt
The weak prophets, the
preachers in the weak churches, will minimize or deny the existence of the
narrow gate, they will tell you that the gate is wide, all you have to do is
believe. Yes, there is a wide gate, but
it is not that one that leads to eternal life.
Beware of the weak prophets!
Jesus is the light of the
world (John
In John 3 we read where
Jesus says that those who are born again, born from above, can see
the
As we are taught in John 3
and in Hebrews 6, a person can be born again, can see the Kingdom of God, but
still remain outside the gate, can still be lost for eternity if they refuse to
enter through that narrow gate, which requires them to submit completely to the
Lordship of Jesus Christ and be willing to obey all that He taught and
commanded.
The Lord Jesus calls for a
holy Church, for it to be holy and spotless, without blemish (Eph
Let us seek the strong
Church, to be part of the strong Body of Christ. Let us long for it, struggle for it, with all
our strength. When we find it, let us be
deeply committed to it. Above all, let us remember that the Church is a gift
from our heavenly Father, let us remember that He is the One who calls us to
it, forms us into it, and feeds us when we are part of it.
Let us give up our claims
to the things of this world, let us drop our hold on Satan's kingdom and place
our hopes and our treasures in God's Kingdom.
Let us give up trying to live in both kingdoms, for the day is coming,
sooner or later for each one of us, when we will pass into eternity and stand
before the Judgment seat of Christ (Rom
2:5-11, II Cor 5:10, I Thess 5:4-11). Let us become part of the strong Body of
Christ, the true Church, before it is too late!
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
Isaiah 42:13
The Lord goes forth like a mighty warrior,
He sends the fire,
He shouts, He roars,
He shall prevail against His enemies.